Being an online boutique owner for some years, e-commerce has became something that is quite close to my heart. I’ve been keeping an eye on the trends happening in the e-commerce space, and you can imagine my surprise when I came across Just Enjoy Life (JEL) which brands themselves as “the online home for beautiful affordable furniture”.

For the young couples in Singapore who have just gotten their first home: If you are looking to move beyond IKEA and Courts, but not quite ready to splurge on expensive designer furniture, JEL may provide just the solution for you. It serves as an alternative for budget conscious buyers who wish to express themselves and their homes through well-designed furniture. At the same time, they aim to be “very Singaporean” in their style and communications, so that they stay true to the local flavour.

I’ve got to give them props for venturing into this space with their daring business model of selling furniture online. The online model is what makes it possible to offer prices 20-40% lower than other designer furniture brands by reducing overheads such as showroom and manpower costs, and by getting products directly from manufacturers. Now you can get designer furniture with the convenience of a mouse click.

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But, are we ready to splurge on furniture without first getting to “test drive” it? Nevertheless, I got curious and decided to engage Andrew, one of JEL’s co-founders, in conversation:

What’s JEL’s branding and unique selling point?

Our positioning sits between the expensive designer brands (think $5000 sofa) and the usual choices (you know where they go for Swedish meatballs). If you are looking for something different from the common affordable choices and designer labels are not within your budget, you can consider JEL. For more information on our pricing which is part of our USP.

How do you get consumers to overcome the mental barrier of needing to try before they buy, especially for something intimate like furniture?

We believe for all things new, we need time to get used to it. In the past, no one ever bought anything online but e-commerce is now a growing trend. We would like to help Singaporeans get onto this trend with the furniture segment. To help customers in their decision, we provide closeup pictures of the items, full and accurate information of material and dimensions, and perspective diagrams. We are also working on providing videos of the furniture.

To reduce the risk for our customers, here are some of the features we provide as part of our offering:

• Free delivery with every purchase
• Delivery within 4 weeks for most products
• Return within 7 days for a full refund if you don’t like your purchase

What is the risk management for JEL like?

Furniture is very expensive to hold as excess inventory. We could consolidate orders and buy the furniture at one go to reduce inventory risks, something which other companies have done. But that will mean most customers will have to wait a long time before the minimum order quantity gets fulfilled.

Instead, we decided to provide faster delivery of goods to our customers by holding inventory. We manage our risks by ensuring that we have the fastest delivery time (2 weeks delivery compared to 2-3 months at some stores). We are taking this risk so as to provide good service and make customers happy.

How do you deal with sales returns? Is it a refund policy? How does JEL handle the exchanges?

We provide on the spot or 7 days full refund. For more information.

From my own experience, after-sales customer service is just as, if not more, important as during-sales service. With their 7 days full refund policy, it almost removes the bulk of risk you may have as a consumer. JEL is running a Chinese New Year promotion now as well, so it’s probably the best time to give them a browse!

Visit JustEnjoyLife.com and enter the promo code “cnyhuatah” during checkout to enjoy a 20% discount. Valid until CNY only.